Hilary Strand

Name: Hilary Strand

Gender: Female

Age: 18

Grade: 12th

School: Bayview Secondary School

Hobbies and Interests: Clubbing, shopping, blogging, trying new things for her blog, hanging out with her friends.

Appearance: Hilary stands at a height of around 5’5”, and now weighs 112lbs. Her eyes are a milky blue colour, accented by a handful of freckles underneath each eye and around her cheeks. She has fairly small ears, though they are usually hidden beneath a head of long, blonde hair, which frays at the ends from all the straightening she does to it. As for her lips, they form a small pout underneath a long nose which hooks down at the end, and her facial structure gives her a soft, rounded face with a slightly-pointed chin. Since her parents originally came from England, her skin is pale in comparison to most in her school, and so instead of tanning regularly, she turns pink, unless she puts on a lot of sun-cream beforehand.

Her clothes give the impression that it’s always cold outside, even when it's over 100 degrees, and she's always seen wearing a thick, navy blue coat whatever the weather. On her left wrist she wears her chastity band, and on her right she wears a range of beaded elastic wristbands and bracelets which she's collected over the years. Underneath the coat, she wears a white vest with an equally white buttoned shirt on top, which she tucks into her tightly-fitting jeans. Accompanying the skirt is a leather belt adorned with a golden belt-buckle wraps itself around her waist, and an oddly-shaped necklace hangs loosely around her neck. Finally, her feet are enveloped inside a pair of brown suede heels, which she wears with long white socks.

Biography: Hilary couldn’t stand the way she looked. Ever since she started junior high, she’d been the target of bullying among her peers because of her British background and the hybrid English/American accent she had going for her. Of course, having foreign parents wasn’t that uncommon, but because she was the only half-English one in her year group, she got a substantial amount of abuse from the other girls. If they saw her in the street, they would throw insults at her like rocks, and if she was ever in the same class as them, they’d get everybody else to join in, claiming: “it’s only a bit of fun”. It wasn’t as though she could’ve done anything to stop it, since their leader happened to be the headmaster’s daughter, and so the abuse went on for years without anybody doing anything about it. That said, there were an awful lot of people who knew about it, but due to their own prejudices, nobody wanted to help her out.

Now, as for her family, they had their own problems. Hilary’s father was a writer, and a rather unsuccessful one at that. As a result, it was up to her mother to support the family, and having three girls to take care of is no easy feat when you have a husband who can’t pay his own way. To make matters worse, their eldest daughter, Roxanne, was preparing to leave home after spending three years at university, carrying a whole heap of unpaid student loans over her head. Their second-eldest daughter did nothing to aid the situation either. Getting in trouble at school and becoming involved in drugs, it was only a matter of time before she went completely off the rails, and died of a heroin overdose at the age of 16.

During all of this, Hilary went unnoticed, quietly going about her own business and shutting herself in her room as often as she could. What she did in there was anyone’s guess, but if you happened upon a certain forum, you could see for yourself. To add to her already crumbling self-conscious mindset, her classmates, now in their fourth year, had took it upon themselves to start teasing her about her weight. It was true that she’d put on a few pounds over the summer, but to Hilary it seemed as though she was wearing a permanent fat suit. Around this time she found a weight-loss forum where girls all around the world would share their tips and tricks on the subject of losing excess weight, and she was hooked by it.

All day long she would come up with new ways to shed any unwanted fat, and when she got home, she would post them up on the forum for all to see. People even started posting pictures of themselves, complete with lines that would read things like “Four ribs and counting!” and “Almost five stone now, hurray!”. It was worrying, to say the least, but to cover up her secret from her family, she wore baggy tops and trousers, and her parents simply thought that she wasn’t eating because she was upset over her losing her sister. At the age of 15, she weighed a measly 38kg, and ironically, she was even paler than she was before. This then caught the attention of her classmates once again, but this time they went too far.

They invited Hilary to a slumber party round one of their houses, claiming that now she’d lost weight, she could start hanging out with them. Under the circumstances, it was impossible for her to see any harm in it, convinced that all her hard work had paid off, and maybe they weren’t so bad after all. Being undernourished and swayed by comments from the girls online, she wasn’t thinking straight, and so off she went to the slumber party with the notion that it was her own fault she’d been picked on so much over the years. Anxious at first, any remaining suspicions she had were soon confirmed as she stepped inside the house. The whole place was pitch-black, which instantly set off alarm bells in her head, and when she tried to leave, she found herself staring the whole group in the eyes as they began their advance.

No-one ever spoke of that day again, but due to the fact Hilary tried to take her own life the very next day, one could assume that it was far less than pleasant. Now this finally got her parents’ attention, and soon enough she was taken out school for the rest of the year and had to attend weekly anorexia meetings in the local hospital. Hearing about everything that had happened to the family, Hilary’s grandmother invited them all to live with her in Minnesota to escape from the place that had treated them so badly. Her husband had died many years prior, and had left her everything in his will, making her the owner of a small chain of restaurants and giving her enough money to live well on her own in St.Paul.

Over the next two years, Hilary and her family all lived in her grandmother’s four-bedroom house, except for Roxanne, who travelled all the way to London to become a journalist. Her father was still having trouble getting his books published, but it meant he was able to stay at home with their new-born son Charlie instead. Being in a new town was scary for everyone at first, but in time they all grew to love it there, especially Hilary, who it seemed to have the biggest effect on. Having gotten back on track weight-wise, she was now looking to start her life anew, and so the first thing she did was transform her look. Her hair was dyed a natural blonde colour (it used to be dark brown), and her mother helped her pick out a whole new wardrobe of clothes to adjust to their new home.

Starting high school, she seems to have gotten used to her new self, and appears to be much happier than she was back in Frankston, which has a major impact on how people now perceive her. She quickly made friends with a girl called Leila, and even convinced her to join her in a pledge of abstinence to keep themselves pure, although they still take time to indulge in liquid impurities at the weekend. She's even known to have written blogs and essays on the subject, though is quick to stress that she's not doing any of it for religious purposes. Hanging out with Leila has it's perks though, as it means that she can help out with Violet's films while even having minor roles herself. People are a little surprised when they see her die on-screen more often than Leila, but are even more surprised to see her screaming and shouting at masked men and mutant killers.

However, people still distance themselves from her in class, which is mainly due to hanging around with people like Trent and Violet, though she doesn't mind. She's learnt that the most popular people in school are often the worst friends, so having people she can really rely on has helped her to open up more. Her latest blog has helped her come out of her shell a little more too, as she's challenged herself to try out a new sport or hobby every month, then post her opinions on it for her followers to read. Aside from blogging and clubbing, she mostly spends her time studying for up-coming exams and focusing her energy on learning to look after herself for when she goes to university. She's still not sure of what she wants to do, but Leila has spent hours convincing her that she should go into the world of fashion with her, although Hilary doesn't really care for it.

One thing she does care for though is a boy she recently met named Brock Mason. The two of them first spoke to each other at the ice rink in town, wherein they had the world's most awkward conversation and Brock even got a feel after she fell straight onto him. Sufficed to say, Hilary still cringes whenever she recalls that day, but luckily the two have met several times since then and they even shared a kiss at a house party some time before prom. They still haven't officially announced themselves as a couple, but the two are sometimes seen sharing glances across the classroom or sneaking off behind corners to make out. Whatever they are, it's doing wonders for Hilary, as she's never looked so happy before.

Overall, she's still quiet and polite when spoken to by her classmates, but her whole demeanour gives no clue as to the events that had taken place three years ago, and to most she's just another pretty face among the other students. Although, Hilary still doesn't think of herself as "pretty", but she feels much better about her image than she did back in Frankston, but still can't take a compliment about her appearance. To this end, she still hasn't recovered fully from the anorexia, both mentally and physically, but she's well on her way to beating it for good with a little help from her grandmother, who Hilary thinks cooks the most amazing Cantonese roast duck in the world.

Advantages: She isn't likely to kill someone without good reason to, but she's learnt a great deal about being victimised, and such, if someone was to turn on her, she'd most definitely fight back.

Disadvantages: That said, she isn't the most capable of fighters, and her body's never been as healthy as it was before the anorexia, which means she tires much easier than most girls her size.

Designated Number: Female student no. 56

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Designated Weapon: Frisbee

Conclusion: I used to love playing with frisbees on windy days when I was a kid. Unfortunately, that same activity wouldn't bode well for you, young lady. Don't blow away, G056!

'The above biography is as written by Hallucinogenic. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Hallucinogenic

Kills: None

Killed By: Leila Langford

Collected Weapons: None

Allies: Leila Langford

Enemies: None

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:  "I-I wanna go hooo-ome! I don't want this!! I d-don't like this!! I don't! I don't like this! I don't like this!!"

Other/Trivia

 * In her Pre-Game profile, Hilary originally moved over to St.Pauls from the UK, while her V4 profile had her originate in an unspecified part of the US. To explain her English/American accent and uses of English slang, her parents' backstory was then edited to have them move over to America before Hilary was born.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Hilary, in chronological order.

Past Memories:
 * Twice The Flavour
 * Together

Pre-Game:
 * Naked Ambition
 * High Gloss Highs
 * Decisions, Decisions

V4:
 * Rest and Relaxation
 * instinct•algorithm
 * Heartbeat Symphony
 * From White To Grey

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Hilary Strand. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Hilary was pretty good. Stef was the only handler in V4 who I felt knocked interactions between his own characters out of the park more often than not, and that really showed in Hilary's death scene. Unfortunately, of his kids, she probably had the toughest start of the game, and then was in a few slow threads and lost one of her biggest plotlines with Brock's death. She was good, but I wish she'd had more stuff to do and more time to do it. - MurderWeasel